To live in New York City is to travel
within New York City, local on one
block but then immigrant on the next:
such is the possibility instability
promised-land of a huge city
Each day always contained more
than one identity— a shifting ground
that never disconcerted, even felt
familiar because, authentically, I am an immigrant, or to use a word
I prefer for its lighter if not indubitably
joi de vivre sensibility: diasporic